TEPCO reports another deadly radiation reading at Fukushima plant

TOKYO (majirox news) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced Aug. 2 that it has detected another deadly radiation reading at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Using remote-controlled robots, TEPCO said it had picked up a reading of 5 Sieverts in the No. 1 reactor building on the second floor of the air condition room.

Junichi Matsumoto, a TEPCO general manager, said detectors the robots were using could only measure up to 5 Sieverts and the actual reading could be even higher.

The announcement came just one day after TEPCO recorded a reading of 10 Sieverts near the No. 1 reactor building.

TEPCO has banned workers from entering the second-floor area where the high level of radiation was detected. It said that nine people had been in the area, but the highest radiation reading of any of them had been 0.2 millisieverts.

Exposure to radiation of 3-5 Sieverts would be fatal to one out of two people.